Dreams

It's been quite a phenomenal ski season. There has been new territory charted. I never realized that it's very possible – easy even – to ski year round as a resident of Nederland, Colorado. You don't have to be unemployed to do it either – the snowfield where I go…I can be at the top of it exactly one hour from my door, including drive time. I used to think you had to stop skiing, and indeed when I lived in Vermont this was the reality. All snow would melt – there would be nowhere to ski. Yet here, where the glaciers retreated not so long ago, there is plenty of snow to be skied. They are patches, they are three or four hundred foot anomalies of winter in a world of green and tundra, but they are wonderful. The funny thing is, people pay hundreds of dollars to go to Loveland in October to ski not much more than what I got today and have been getting three or four days a week for free.

I have a new criteria for my dream cabin. The land has to of course be on a mountain, and that mountain has to have a snowfield that lingers into July, and preferably even year round. Such land will likely not be on the main road. No problem – the place Elaine and I go is a mere mile from a maintained route. Actually, I can think of few things better after a hard day of work than parking the vehicle, and donning the cross country skis for an evening ski of a mile back home. An acre or three of land, in the forest, but not too far from treeline, with a creek nearby for water, timber for building a 48 log cabin, no more than a mile or two ski or hike in from the road. And a snowfield nearby. Some people want a ranch in Montana or an apartment in New York. We want forest land with trees, a slope for skinning and skiing in the winter that turns into a lingering snowfield well into summer. We'll keep looking. Of course it's a dream, but sometimes it's good to put your dreams into writing, as then they become a goal.